Good morning,
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:
1️⃣ Are Meta’s default settings hurting your ad performance?
2️⃣ Accelerate your content creation using this free Shopify AI tool
3️⃣ We recap our DTC Dines LA event covering Meta strategies and influencer attribution
4️⃣ How brands like Skims and Percival use these psychological tactics to justify premium prices
You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Factrica AI, Salt & Savour, and Squints Apparel. 👋
[Screenshot from @herrmanndigital on X]
Are Meta’s default settings silently draining your ad spend?
You see massive click-through rates, but your actual sales remain completely flat.
David Herrmann shares that isolating the Meta Audience Network reveals it often acts as a low-intent budget dump.
Disabling this single placement has led to 140%+ CVR lifts and recovered margins for multiple operators.
The goal? Stopping accidental, low-quality clicks from cannibalizing your budget so Meta forces delivery into high-converting spaces like the Feed.
What can you do? Audit your placements. Check if the Audience Network is eating 1% or more of your daily budget with inflated CTRs (10% to 40%) but low conversion rates. If it is, consider turning it off.
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* sponsored
🤖 Shopify’s New AI Content Creation Tool
Ever struggled with creating professional-quality content for your brand?
Shopify might just have the solution you’ve been looking for with Tinker.
What’s Tinker?
It’s a newer mobile app that brings together over 100 powerful AI tools into one easy-to-use app.
It can help you create anything from product photos to social media videos without the need for technical knowledge or expensive subscriptions.
So, whether you're a small business owner, entrepreneur, or creator, Tinker is your new best friend for turning ideas into reality.
Pilothouse shares 5 things Tinker can help with:
1️⃣ Product photography
Upload your product image and get back professional, studio quality shots in just minutes.
2️⃣ Logos
Describe your business in a few words and let Tinker generate a custom logo that fits your brand’s vibe.
3️⃣ Social media videos
Turn your product images into engaging videos, perfect for sharing online.
4️⃣ 360-degree product views
Create interactive, 360-degree images of your products to give customers a better look at what you’re offering.
5️⃣ Ad creative
Design clean statics and videos to market your products online in a matter of minutes
The takeaway?
The Tinker app makes it easier than ever to bring your brand’s creative vision to life. Test it out now to see how it can help you scale your content machine.
🍽️ DTC Dines LA
We pulled together DTC Dines LA last week, in partnership with our friends at Tapcart, at Firstborn in DTLA. Chef Anthony Wang's Chinese American room with French bistro bones delivered. Stuffed morels. Spicy meatballs. A steak we're still talking about.
The table was a cross-section of where DTC is right now. Founders and growth operators, Tapcart and DTC team members, plus Abby, Taylor, and Grayson from Pilothouse, who are regulars on the pod.
We got into whether everyone's struggling on Meta right now and what they're doing to fix it, and how to actually measure attribution on influencer campaigns. We also talked kids, marriages, where everyone's living, what they're reading, what they're walking away from, favorite TV shows, things to do in LA. The version of networking that actually moves the needle is the one where you forget you're networking.
Tapcart helped make the room happen. They're the mobile app platform behind some of Shopify's biggest brands. Worth a look if a branded app is anywhere on your 2026 list.
More of these, more often, in more cities. Stay tuned. Austin up next.
*In partnership with Tapcart
The Psychology Behind The Buy: Skims and Percival and What Your Email Program Should Learn
Real, sustainable scale isn’t built on algorithmic growth hacks or siloed email tricks. It’s anchored in human psychology.
Jordan digs into how modern brands like Skims and Percival use identity, pricing psychology, cultural signaling, and retention strategy to shape buying behavior.
Inside the episode:
Everlane founder launches new brand. Michael Preysman announces a new venture built around “same principles but a new take” after the shocking Shein acquisition. Read more →
Google tests interactive shopping ads. A new mouseover feature gives users more product info and advertisers more real estate. Read more →
OpenAI prepares conversion-focused ads. The AI company continues to build more ad tools in ChatGPT to attract SMBs and compete with Meta and Google. Read more →
📥 Got a B2B Biz?
Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 150k brand leaders and founders this year. Talk to our team to learn more.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.
Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.
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